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Valentine Recap

Yesterday was the first Valentine's Day in fifteen years that I haven't been with my husband. He was wrapping things up at a music convention in San Antonio, then heading home. It felt weird. We don't really do elaborate things to celebrate, actually. We exchange cards and sometimes little gifts. But we're together.

I was feeling a bit blue when I came across this post from my next door neighbor:

So I'm in line at the grocery store and there's a boy in front of me all by himself with a large bouquet of long stem red roses. His total comes to $21.15 and he whips out a $20 bill. The cashier informs him that he is $1.15 short and the boy, who is just adorable says all I have is $20. The cashier says I'm sorry kid but I can't help you out. There was no way I was going to let this boy not have the Valentine's Day that he was planning so there was only one thing I could do. I went ahead and paid the difference for him and with the biggest smile he gives me a very heartfelt thank you! Happy Valentine's Day to all you love bugs out there!

Reading about her simple act of kindness really gave me a lift. When my daughter went out for dinner with friends, I decided to take myself down to the Second Chance for my own Valentine dinner. I brought my iPad along for company and enjoyed a delightfully pink drink.

The food was great, the service was awesome, and my mood was much improved. While I was finishing my dinner I got an idea. I popped into the Food Lion, then basically crawled the one block drive to my house from the village center. The snow was really coming down and I didn't have much traction. I pulled my coat around myself and put my hood up, then completed my mission.

A little while later my neighbor posted this picture, with the caption, "feeling loved".

Soon after, my daughter made it home from her social event. My older daughter called me on the phone, after her dinner date with her husband, to see how I was doing. Then finally, after midnight, my husband returned safe and sound, after white-knuckling a low-visibility, high-wind drive from BWI.

So that was my Valentine's Day. Different, but wonderful all the same.

 

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